Diverse Luxury: Sotheby’s Auctions Rare Michael Jordan Nike Sneakers For $1.5M
Nike Air Ships, worn by Michael Jordan in the fifth game of his rookie season in 1984, by Sotheby's.
By Cassell Ferere originally published on Forbes.com
Diverse Luxury Becomes Evident As Sotheby’s Auctions Rare Michael Jordan Nike Sneakers For $1.5 Million
Auctioning off sneakers has been much of a trend for the past two generations. They have come along and deified the modern, yet casual, and what was once athletic footwear. October 24, 2021, at the Aria Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, the culmination and continuum of sneaker-ism broke another record for an auctioned pair of sneakers. This time it was none other than a pair of 1984, Michael Jordan-worn Nike Air Ships, from the fifth game of his rookie season, sold for $1.472 million at the Sotheby’s live auction titled Icons of Excellence and Haute Luxury.
This Nike Air Ships model shoe was estimated to sell for $1 million to $1.5 million by Sotheby’s. The auctioning of the 1985 game-worn Nike Air Jordan 1 High previously held the record in auction at $615,000 in August 2020. The Nike Air Ships are the highest selling Nike Air Jordan model in auction thus far.
Designed by Bruce Kilgore and first revealed in 1984, Jordan would be gifted multiple pairs of the Nike Air Ships that displayed naming variations like “Nike Air,” “Air Jordan,” and “Air,” as seen on the auctioned pair of sneakers and in images from the game. Nike Air Ships are arguably a prototype for the official Nike Air Jordan 1 model the following year.
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